Simmer
by Dragonsrule18
Summary: Papyrus had always thought love and cooking were similar. Unfortunately he once expected both to be a burning inferno. But after cooking lessons with Toriel on the surface and four years of friendship with Frisk, he found that sometimes both love and cooking worked better on a slow burn. And he was falling in love with Frisk Dreemurr. Prequel to It's So Big.


Simmer

 **This is a prequel to my story It's So Big and also has references to Full Disclosure, but can be read alone.**

 **I've been wanting to write a story to show how Papyrus fell in love with Frisk. My Papyrus is demisexual and needs a strong emotional bond to feel romantic or sexual feelings, so his feelings for Frisk took time to develop.**

 **...**

Papyrus carefully stirred the pot simmering on the stove before adding the cilantro in just the right amount. He then glanced over to Frisk, who was carefully stuffing the homemade ravioli noodles with meat filling, her tongue sticking out very slightly in concentration as she tucked the noodle dough around the filling. He smiled as he watched her work, his gaze lingering for longer than it used to before he returned his attention to the sauce.

When Papyrus was young and cooking with his dad, his dad had told him that his mother used to say that love and cooking were very similar. And Papyrus had believed him. Still did, as a matter of fact.

Because it was true.

But when he was still living in the Underground, he hadn't understood quite how either worked.

His teacher, Undyne, was, to put it nicely, the "blast the heat" type of cook. She was intense in everything she did, and cooking was no exception. It was full of passion, often sloppy, and tended to set her house on fire.

Papyrus thought love was the same way. He thought it would come on intensely like an inferno. When he had dated Frisk less than a day after they met for the second first time(timeline before that being unremembered at that time), he had expected that if he had any romantic feelings for her, he'd fall intensely, madly in love with her on their very first date. But he hadn't. In fact he had felt awkward and nervous the entire time, becoming tongue-tied at every sentence and saying the most ridiculous things in his attempt to woo her. It hadn't felt right, not at that time.

He liked her a lot, she was cool, funny, and sweet, but he didn't love her romantically yet as he had barely known her, so he had sadly told her his feelings were still the same and they had decided to just be friends.

After that, they had split the plate of spaghetti he had made for her and ate, talked, and laughed. He felt a comfortable warmth, getting to know her, to realize they had a lot of things in common without the pressure of it being a date.

But it was no burning inferno. Not like he thought there should be with love as well as cooking.

...

But on the surface, under the tutelage of Toriel, who had taken over his cooking lessons after Papyrus and Undyne almost blew up her kitchen, Papyrus had found out that while passion and heat were indeed important, cooking needed much more than that. He couldn't just blast the heat and rush through it; it needed direction and the right things to be added to make a recipe delicious. And often, a lower heat, a longer cook time, was what was really needed to let the flavors sink in, to make the food as great as it could be. Too much heat too soon could burn up the food and destroy it; just the right amount could make it amazing.

And in four years of friendship with Frisk, he again found that love was the same. A relationship needed time to grow and sometimes the heat came at a slow burn. And the proper seasoning made it all the more wonderful.

They had a strong base in their friendship. They were very close, almost inseparable, and enjoyed each other's company, whether it was doing fun activities or just talking. They respected each other and enjoyed spending time with the other's friends.

There was a lot of trust as well. Papyrus could be himself with Frisk. He didn't have to keep up the constant front of being the Great Papyrus that he always felt he had to with everyone else, even Sans and Undyne. He could confide in her when he was worried or feeling insecure and she would always listen without being overbearing and would never brush it off by saying that he was so cool that he didn't have to worry about it or some other such nonsense. Instead, she would hug him and let him vent it all out before offering advice if he asked for it or stating her own opinion without once demeaning his feelings. She treated him like an equal, not like a small child.

And she trusted him too. She told him things she would never tell anyone else and it was him she came to whenever she was upset. And like she did for him, he would hold her and listen, and comfort her without acting like her fears, worries, and insecurities were ridiculous.

Another important part of their relationship was that they worked well as a team. When Asgore had asked Frisk to become the ambassador for monsters, she had been unsure if she could do it, that she was too inexperienced or too young. Papyrus had offered to help her, which Frisk had accepted with relief, and the two became co-ambassadors. Papyrus was a warrior with words and was well liked by humans. He also had a gift of twisting the words of their political foes around without them even realizing he did it, and had often tricked them into agreeing with him. However, he was monster enough to admit he could be naive at times and didn't know much about human traditions at first, and the more cynical Frisk, who had her own gift with words, would step in. Together, they were a formidable duo.

And not just in work, but in fun too. They loved to team up with each other against their friends in games. Besides his brother, Frisk was always the person he wanted on his side the most. He trusted her to cover his back(especially when Undyne had a sneak attack planned.)

And win or lose, Papyrus and Frisk always had fun together. They shared a lot of things in common. Both were do'ers that loved hands on things like cooking or building models. They could spend all day building and flying model airplanes and rockets together, and loved going to hobby shops to find new projects to build together whether it was models or fun science projects or puzzles. They also loved getting together to play competitive games with their friends like laser tag or water balloon fights, or sports like basketball, bowling, or soccer(though Frisk, being extremely short, would always lose at HORSE and Papyrus was the Gutter Ball Champion at bowling in his own words.).

They also loved playing video games together and had similar tastes in movies and TV shows(most of the time; Frisk loved anime while Papyrus didn't care for it, and Papyrus found mushy romantic movies a guilty pleasure while Frisk wasn't too fond of them, but for the other, they would watch them anyway). Having fun together flavored their relationship even further.

And while physical attraction wasn't the most important aspect of their relationship, it was there too and Papyrus had been noticing it even more lately. He had always thought Frisk was cute. He loved her expressive brown eyes and the little freckles on her nose and cheeks. He loved her smile, her laugh, how those eyes would light up whenever he suggested something fun, how gracefully she would move through his puzzles, and the way she would hum slightly when she concentrated, like she was doing now while finishing making her ravioli. He had begun to start feeling warm when she pressed close to him or snuggled up to him when they watched movies, and he found himself making excuses to put his arms around her. He would get even more flustered when she would playfully flirt with him. He had thought more than once about what it would be like to kiss her and often he caught himself staring at her.

...

Which he was apparently doing now as Frisk's humming had stopped and she was looking at him in slight concern. "Papyrus, are you okay?"

"HUH? OH, I'M FINE, HUMAN. AND I THINK THE SAUCE IS READY!" And indeed it was, bubbling slightly with the delicious smell filling the room. It had been simmering for a while now, giving the flavors enough time to meld in, much better than the hurried smashed vegetable sauce he used to make in about a minute.

Frisk smiled. "It smells awesome! And I got the ravioli...raviolis? ready!"

"THEY LOOK FANTASTIC, FRISK! YOU ARE INDEED A TOP NOTCH CHEF, JUST LIKE ME!" Papyrus told her with a grin.

Frisk grinned back. "Thanks, Papyrus!"

He gave her a hug, not caring that her Kiss The Cook apron and her hands were messy. He wanted to follow the instruction on her apron but wasn't sure how she'd react, so he didn't. Their hug lingered just a bit longer than normal. "...I REALLY ENJOY COOKING WITH YOU, FRISK." he told her after they had pulled apart.

She gave him her special smile, the one reserved only for him. "Me too, Papyrus."

His soul fluttered and he felt heat fill his body and his cheeks turned orange. He turned to the sauce pot before she could see it.

Like his sauce, he found that love was stronger and all the more amazing on a slow burn with all the right bases and seasonings added.

And he was in love with Frisk Dreemurr.

 **...**

 **Please review and let me know what you think!**


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